Following the Way of Jesus - Sermon series on Matthew's Gospel.

The King is at Work! - Workers are needed for the Harvest field.

Matthew 9:35–38 (NIV84)

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Out text tells us that

1. See the King in Action!

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.”(v35)

When Jesus ministered in preaching the Gospel he was keen that no one in Israel was left out! - “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.”(v35)

The “preaching the good news of the Kingdom” is to herald (Grk: keruso) a message or proclaim an important announcement (Matt. 4:17; Matt 10:7; Mark 16:15). His preaching called on His hearers not simply to believe what He taught but to believe in Him on the strength of what they saw Him do. The miracles of healing and deliverance acted as signposts to His identiy as the Messiah and as God manifested in the flesh - “who is this that the winds and waves obey Him”(Mark 8),!

This really is the key point of miracles that the Jews failed to grasp. It explains this dialogue between Jesus and the religious leaders in John 10:22-39 “Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’ If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.” There are none so blind as those who will not see!

So, Jesus went about “preaching the good news of the Kingdom” and in His message of the Kingdom, He Himself was both the object and the good news! To hear and receive the message of the Kingdom was to accept Him as Saviour and Lord and to follow Him as “the way, the truth and the life”(John 14:6).

Everyone who responded to Jesus’ message becomes a citizen of God’s kingdom - you “enter the Kingdom of God”(John 3). Its a new birth and a new life! Jesus becomes our King and we becomes obedient subjects of His Kingdom, living in obedience to His commands which is a sign of our love for Him(John 14:15).

Jesus “ went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness.”(v35)

These words are almost identical with Matt 4:23 “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” and they are deliberately placed here by Matthew as a kind of framework which captures the threefold nature of Jesus’ ministry, a ministry of teaching, preaching and healing as described so graphically in Matthew chapters 5-9.

Jesus’ passion for the preaching of the gospel is reinforced in the ministry of the disciples who having been with Jesus are now to become like Jesus by doing what Jesus does - Matthew 10:1 “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” This shows that the authority revealed in Jesus’ ministry in Matthew chapters 5–9 is passed on to them.

Jesus preached this “good news of the Kingdom” to “the lost sheep of Israel”(Matt 15:24) and He was driven by His passion that everyone had an opportunity to hear it!

“Jesus went throughout Galilee”. This is quite a task for a man who pretty much walked everywhere! In fact, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (AD 37-100) reported that at this time there were “204 towns and villages scattered across Upper and Lower Galilee”(Jewish Histories B.III,ch iii,2). in an area about 40 miles wide and 70 miles long. “Moreover the cities lie here very thick; and the very many villages are everywhere so full of people by the richness of the soil that the very least of them contain above 15,000 inhabitants." If, this is the case then as Dr. Merrill suggests in “Galilee in the Time of Christ” the population of Galilee would contain upward of three million people but Josphus may be exaggerating here at perhaps as DR. E. W. G. MASTERMAN in his book “GALILEE IN THE TIME OF CHRIST” estimates, it is much more likely that the population of the region was around 400,000, still a considerable size!

Jesus’ strategy in preaching and bringing the “good news of the Kingdom” was to teach “in their synagogues”

This was allowed, even though he at first would have been a relative stanger and a relatively unknown Rabbi! Synagogues literally mean “place of assembly” and were built where at least ten Jewish men lived, both in Israel and in the nations of the Diaspora. The “synagogue” developed during the Babylonian exile, beginning in 586 BC, when the Jews could gather together for worship and instruction as a community in exile from the Temple. Synagogues were ther centre of Jewish community life. It was not only a place of worship, but also a school. This emphasis on instruction explains why the Yiddish word for synagogue was “schul”, akin to our English school. It was the place where Jewish boys were trained in the Talmud, the official commentaries on the law of Moses and where many Jewish men often spent time studying the Scriptures (see Acts 17:11).

Synagogues also acted as a court and an administrative centre. Religious and community affairs were administered by the ten elders, or rulers, of the synagogue, such as Jairus (Mark 5:22) who were trained up and presided as teachers and judges, and from their number they selected a chief ruler, an interpreter of Hebrew for the worship services, a director of the school, and other such officers. All civil and religious disputes were settled in the synagogues. Cases would be tried, judged, and the punishment carried out in the synagogue (see Matt. 10:17). of the synagogue would meet for worship on the Sabbath and on the second and fifth days of each week.

However, as the Jewish scholar Philo, of Alexandria, who lived during the time of Christ, wrote, “Synagogues are mainly for the detailed reading and exposition of Scripture.” During the service a designated reader would stand up and read from the law, which required a translation from Classical Hebrew into Aramaic, the languge of Israel in Jesus day (as also Nehemiah’s see cf. Neh. 8:8). That would be followed by the exposition of a passage from the law or the prophets. Because of the policy called “freedom of the synagogue,” the exposition of the Scripture passage could be given by any qualified man of the congregation, and the privilege was frequently extended to visiting rabbis or dignitaries. So, both Jesus and Paul took advantage of that privilege, which became instrumental in the spread of the gospel during the first century (see Matt. 4:23; 13:54; Luke 4:15–21; Acts 9:20; 13:5; 18:4; 19:8).

But we also know that Jesus did not limit His preaching to the Synagogues, He preached on a Mountain overlooking a plain where thousands came to hear Him and he preached on street corners; on the shores of lakes, and in private houses. Everywhere He went, he preached the gospel, healed disease and sickness! This was “good news” and it could not be restricted to religous buildings! “New wine” bursting out of the “old winskins”!

2. Hear the King’s Heart!

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus was moved be the need of the crowds specifically “because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (see Ezek 34:5).

The word translated “compassion” is literally His ‘gut reaction’, a word that is used to explain the pity the master took on the “unforgiving servant"in Matthew 18:27 or the pity the Samaritan took on the wounded man in Luke 10:33; or the pity that the Father took on his prodigal son in Luke 15:20. It reflects the stirring of His heart that leads Him to act in love, mercy and grace to sinners in need.

Whenever Jesus sees us “harassed and helpless”, literally ‘torn and thrown down’, by life’s circumstances, He has compassion on us! I love the old Hym “Saviour Like A Shepherd Lead us” by Dorothy A Thrupp written in 1836:

“Savior, like a shepherd lead us, Much we need Thy tender care; In Thy pleasant pastures feed us, For our use Thy folds prepare: Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus, Thou hast bought us, Thine we are;

We are Thine, do Thou befriend us, Be the guardian of our way; Keep Thy flock, from sin defend us, Seek us when we go astray: Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus, Hear, O hear us when we pray;

Thou hast promised to receive us, Poor and sinful though we be; Thou hast mercy to relieve us, Grace to cleanse, and pow'r to free: Blessèd Jesus, blessèd Jesus, Early let us turn to Thee.”

We should early turn to Jesus because “sheep without a Shepherd” are vulnerable to their predators and the natural elements because they are weak, needy and defencesless.

Sheep do not thrive or even survive for any ,emght of time without a Shepherd! They are meant to be together and made to be dependent!

We have already heard that Jesus came for “the lost sheep of Israel” and we know this was a metaphor that Jesus deployed to explain His relationship with God’s people. Jesus is “the Good Shepherd”(John 10) which echoses the teaching of Psalm 23 among others where the Psalmist delcares that “the Lord is my Shepherd”

Also the phrase, “sheep without a shepherd”, is taken directly from the Old Testament in which it refers to the populations need for leadership - “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites. After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes.” (These were the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.) Moses said to the Lord, “May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit,a and lay your hand on him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.” Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Lord instructed through Moses.”(Num 27:12-23).

The prhase is also used in Zechariah 10:2-3 to denote a lack of spiritual care and guidance as well (cf. Zech. 10:2–3 “The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. “My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty will care for his flock, the house of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle.”

In Jesus’ day the people suffered for lack of true, godly Shepherd who cared more for the sheep than themselves and wh saw it as their first responsibility to teach and feed people the word of God and protect them from savage wolves in order to care properly for their souls. This is why Paul exhorts Timothy, “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”(2 Tim 4:1-5).

3. Consider the King’s Intention! -

“Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Israel was immensely privileged and blessed in being visited in such a special and singular way by Jesus! The time is ripe for blessings but tragially the danger is that too many may miss out!

These verses positionied as they are in Matthew, serve a dual purpose of summarising the ministry of Jesus in chapters 5–9 and an introduction to the parallel mission of the disciples in chapter 10. where we read that

The wording is carefully designed to look both back and forward, and to emphasize the continuity between these two sections of the book. It reveals Jesus’ heart for the helpless and hopeless who are sheep without a shepherd and it reflects itself in the ministry of the disciples who present Jesus to the masses. as Jesus was concerend that everyone in Israel should have the opportunity of hearing and responding to “the good news of the Kingdom” so He commands and challenges His discples to share His compassion for the lost by praing that the Lord of the harvest, ...send out workers into his harvest field.”

Notice that Jesus does not say that every disciple willl be a “worker in the harvest field”, for then He would not need to ask us to pray about it He would just command us to go and do it as He did to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-19.

Not everyone is called to “do the work of an evangelist”(2 Tim 4:5) because the Evangelist is one of the gifts of the Ascended Christ to His Church(Eph 4:11-14) but because Jesus want everyone to have an opportunity of hearing and experiencing “the Good News of the Kingdom” He asks us to at least pray about it and if we are so gifted to be willing to be one of those “workers” in God’s “harvest”!

The need is great and the opportunity is now and the prospects are wonderful! There is a “plentiful” harvest field to work in but sadly there is not enough doing the work! More are needed. Pray!

Jesus was compassionate on the crowds and pasionate about preaching the Gospel and He was deternimed that this should continue when He is no longer doing this Himself! Why?

Why is this so important? Why is this the most important thing in life? So important in fact that Paul would say, in Romans 9, “I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race.”(Rom 9:1-3) or again in Romans 10:1,8-15 “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved...But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” This was His great purpose in life, as He also said in Romans 15:20-21 “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known...as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”

Why? Because the world is a “harvest” field, a place that needs reaping but a place in which the crop can be lost because no one is there to harvest it!

And that is why harvest is also used in the Old Testament as a picture of the coming judgment (Isa. 27:12; Hos. 6:11; Joel 3:13) - Joel 6:11-16, “Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side. Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow—so great is their wickedness!” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel."

We desperately need to escape the harvest of God’s judgment! This is why John the Baptist proclaimed, in Matt 3:7-12, “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you withb water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

It’s also why Jesus taught for example in the Parable of the Weeds in Matt 13:37-42 37, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

That’s the end of the age when a terrible fate awaits the world on Judgment Day but in the meantime, we unlike the angels who weed out evil, can “pluck brands from the burning”(Zech 3:1-2)

Jesus’ then calls us to pray and to consider the need and take advantage of it as He did with the Samaritans in John 4 - “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”(John 4:33-37).

We call upon people to ‘flee from the coming wrath”. We are not angels sent out to execute final judgment on the nations, but workers sent out to rescue others from judgment(so Matt 10:5–6). But there are too few workers so we must pray and we msut ask God to icnrease the number and if called we must be willing to go and do it!

And we can all do something! We can all speak a word; share our testimony; live a Christ-like life as His disciples, working and to praying in the harvest field of the world!

Application & Practice:

The context between then and now are quite different. First Century Palestine is not like 21st Century Whitby, but the application of the text for our context is no different.

The “good news of the Kingdom of Heaven” is not restricted to Israel. Matt 28:18-19: “Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus, wants you and me to be His disciples. He invites us to a life of being with Him; becoming like Him and doing what He does in the world!

He invites to identify with Him and His Father and the Holy Spirit in baptism as a sign and a symbol of the new life that we take on - Romans 6:3-4, “buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Jesus invites us, here today to flee from the coming wrath; to escape the harvest of Judgment; to become one of His followers. That is open for you and for me today if we will repent of our sins and call upon Him by faith.

Likewise, the text calls us to pray and be open to God’s gifting and God’s call to share His gospel in the harvest field of the world. Whitby is a harvest field and the question that faces us as Whitby Christian Fellowship is, will we be active in it or allow the harvest to die in the field?

As believers who wish be like Jesus, are we filled with His “compassion” for the lost? Do we have a heart of compassion for the helpless and the hpeless who are so vulnerable in our Society today?

The UK had been immensely privileged, blessed and visited throughout modern history but today the Gospel is neglected; some areas of our country have very little gospel witness and too many aremissing out!

So we need to pray and act and learn how we can do this effectively as WCF, a gathered community, welcoming people in and as a scattered community, working and witnessing in the world? Matthew 10 will help us where we read that, “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness…Jesus sent(them) out...”(Matt 10:1,5). ” This passage will give us important instruction when we look at it, but let us ever keep in mind that we are most effective when we learn how to do this by abiding in Christ and imitating Christ by following His example; proclaiming His gospel and showing His loving compassion.

So what shall do? What is our takeaway practice from today?

We should pray for God’s blessing and help to provide the workers needed to reap in the Harvest field of the world - beginning on our own town and district - Lord, “send a revival”

We should pray and ask God what our own part in witnessing or being available to work in that harvest field should be? Am I mainly a prayer or mainly a proclaimer or both? Lord, “send a revival, start the work in me!”

We should remember that the Harvest conditions that are currently ripe for a fruitful crop may well spoil in the field and be only good for the fire - Lord give us a heart of compassion, that we with all our mind, body, soul and strength, do all that we can do to further the cause of the Kingdom of Heaven by procamiming the “good news of the Kingdom of Heaven!”

As we practice, let us say this prayer together:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart today; Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me; Cleanse me from ev'ry sin and set me free.

I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin; Fulfill Thy Word and make me pure within; Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame; Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.

Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine; Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine; Take all my will, my passion, self and pride; I now surrender: Lord - in me abide.

O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee; Send a revival - start the work in me. Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need; For blessing now, O Lord, I humbly plead.”

(J. Edwin Orr).